Foster's (Foster's Tourist Home)
Foster’s Tourist Home was listed in the Green Book as “Foster’s” under “Tourist Home” in Pinehurst in 1947; as “Foster’s” under Tourist Homes” in Pinehurst from 1948-1953; and as “Foster’s Tourist Home” in Pinehurst from 1956-1959.1
Although not definitively proven, it is likely that Foster’s Tourist Home, located near Pinehurst, North Carolina, was operated by George Nathan Foster and Ammie Pride Foster. The couple lived in the African American enclave of Jackson Hamlet, where George is credited with having established a small resort area for African Americans. Many of the African Americans who lived in Jackson Hamlet, including George, worked in the resort town of Pinehurst but were not permitted to live there or patronize its businesses due to racism and segregation.2
George Nathan Foster was born in 1892 and was raised in Iron Station (sometimes called Ironton), a community in Lincoln County. He graduated from Lincoln Academy in Kings Mountain. George moved to Pinehurst in 1917 when he accepted a position with the General Office of Pinehurst and later worked as a janitor in Pinehurst. He purchased thirty acres of land in 1928 to develop a housing community for African Americans and leveraged his connections to become the first resident in Jackson Hamlet to have a water connection. He sold water from his spigot to other residents of the community.3
George married Ammie L. Pride in Richmond County, North Carolina in 1917. Ammie, a native of Rock Hill, South Carolina and a prominent clubwoman, operated a rooming and boarding service for travelers. The rooming and boarding service may have been Foster’s Tourist Home. She also worked as a school teacher. She was business savvy and contributed her talents to her community, serving as recording secretary of the Moore County Women’s Federated Clubs and as the Supervisor of Community Canning.4
Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022
Notes
1. Victor Green, 1947 Green Book, 65; 54; Green, 1954 Green Book, 54; Green, 1955 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1948 Green Book, 63; Green, 1949 Green Book, 57; Green, 1950 Green Book, 63; Green, 1951 Green Book, 54; Green, 1952 Green Book, 54; Green, 1953 Green Book; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 46; Green, 1957 Green Book, 47; Green, 1959 Green Book, 52.
2. 1900 United States Federal Census, Ironton, Lincoln County, North Carolina, digital image s.v. “George N. Foster,” accessed from www.ancestry.com; UNC Center for Civil Rights, “Invisible Fences: Municipal Underbounding in Southern Moore County,” August 2006, UNC Inclusion Project, http://www.uncinclusionproject.org/documents/invisiblefences.pdf; R. Irving Boone, Ed., Negro Business and Professional Men & Women: A Survey of Negro Progress in Varied Sections of North Carolina (Wilmington, NC: self-published, 1946), 32. See entry for Foster’s Service Station for more information about Jackson Hamlet: https://aahc.nc.gov/green-book/fosters-fosters-service-station.
3. George Hatlan [sic] Foster, December 11, 1892, Pinehurst, Moore County, North Carolina, U.S. World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, accessed from www.ancestry.com; UNC Center for Civil Rights, “Invisible Fences: Municipal Underbounding in Southern Moore County,” August 2006, UNC Inclusion Project, http://www.uncinclusionproject.org/documents/invisiblefences.pdf; R. Irving Boone, Ed., Negro Business and Professional Men & Women: A Survey of Negro Progress in Varied Sections of North Carolina (Wilmington, NC: self-published, 1946), 32.
4. R. Irving Boone, Ed., Negro Business and Professional Men & Women: A Survey of Negro Progress in Varied Sections of North Carolina (Wilmington, NC: self-published, 1946), 32; Nathan Foster and Annie [sic] L. Pride, april 26, 1917, Richmond County, North Carolina, U.S. Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com.